Extreme Networks Hires John Kurtzweil as CFO
Extreme Networks, a high-performance ethernet switching for cloud, data centre and mobile networks company, has hired John Kurtzweil as chief financial officer (CFO) and senior vice president (SVP). He comes to Extreme Networks from Cree, a US$1bn company and market leader in LED technology. On 29 June, Kurtzweil will succeed interim CFO Jim Judson, who will continue as a consultant during a transition period.
Kurtzweil has more than 15 years of experience as the CFO of publicly-traded companies and has led strategic planning cycles, merger and acquisition (M&A) teams, and finance operations focused on improving shareholder value. He has worked as CFO with leading technology companies such as Cree, Cirrus Logic and ON Semiconductor. Kurtzweil also worked for Read-Rite, Maxtor and Honeywell. During his six-year tenure at Cree, Kurtzweil transformed the finance organisation and helped the company grow from US$396m in annual revenue at the end of his first year to more than US$1bn in annual revenue today, with zero debt.
Kurtzweil has also served as a change agent at Cree, implementing new programmes in the areas of accounting, finance, supply chain management and IT with a focus on improved operations and increased cash flow management.
Kurtzweil is a certified public accountant (CPA), certified management accountant (CMA), has an MBA from the University of St Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University in Accounting.